According to Gartner, “Lacking flexible and open application architecture and operational infrastructure, CIOs will struggle to get the speed and agility they seek as they invest in digital business initiatives. As a result, legacy system renovation must be cost-justified as part of the digital business initiative—or earlier if recognized. If it's an afterthought, or underinvested, results will be significantly delayed or fleeting. Moreover, since legacy modernization or replacement requires significant time investment, proactive CIOs justify these investments as a necessary business imperative, not waiting for the digital business moment or innovation idea to spur them, but preparing themselves for the future.”

The Kendo UI Builder by Progresstool is based upon the popular Kendo UI framework, the fastest growing framework on the market, used to build more than 20,000 apps. The Kendo UI Builder by Progress product takes this framework to the world of business critical applications, blending the essential foundation that the OpenEdge application development platform delivers, with the engagement paramount to driving digital transformation. This easy-to-use, cost-effective tool minimizes development effort, provides the foundation to improve UI as trends and technology evolve, and most importantly, delivers highly competitive applications for competitive advantage.

Future-proof business applications: Progress OpenEdge application partners and customers can now quickly develop data-driven views from out-of-the box templates available in the Kendo UI Designer tool. The meta-data-driven UIs help “future-proof” OpenEdge applications, making it easier to adjust the application on the fly, to stay current with the latest technology trends.

Accelerated app modernization: The Kendo UI Builder tool also extends existing skills for Advanced Business Logic (ABL) developers with open standards-based technology, enabling them to leverage JavaScript framework (Angular 1.5) based code. It auto-generates 80 percent of UI code and provides UI component templates that define the views for rapid time-to-market, and utilizes REST and JSDO as data sources for data-driven UI.

Faster time-to-market: With the Kendo UI Builder tool, Progress OpenEdge application partners and customers can minimize development efforts in creating and delivering elegant, easily navigable web applications for personalized interaction with browsers and tablets, with ready-to-use themes and a sample app library of 70+ HTML5 UIs.

The release of Kendo UI Builder comes at a crucial period for companies in Asia Pacific. A recent survey conducted by Loudhouse and commissioned by Progress revealed that 95 percent of the respondents across the region recognize that digital transformation is crucial in driving positive business outcomes.

“Businesses in the region are transitioning into the digital era with a strategy focused on user experience. From an enterprise perspective, data-driven business applications designed for ease of use, play a fundamental role in creating truly digital businesses,” said Benjamin Wong, Managing Director, Asia, Progress. “The release of Kendo UI Builder will help enterprises rapidly and cost-effectively create exceptional web applications, enabling their digital transformation journey today.”

“While web interfaces are not new, historically, our customers have focused on the power, reliability and lower total cost of ownership that the OpenEdge platform is known for. With the evolution of digital business, an elegant enduser experience is no longer a nice to have, but a requirement,” said Colleen Smith, Vice President and General Manager for Progress OpenEdge, Progress. “With the release of Kendo UI Builder by Progress, OpenEdge application partners and customers can now quickly and cost effectively create exceptional web interfaces, without modifying the backend, carrying their applications well into the future.”